# Asako I & II (寝ても覚めても)
**Asako I & II** (寝ても覚めても, *Netemo Sametemo*, literally "Whether Sleeping or Waking") is a 2018 Japanese-French romance drama directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, adapted from Tomoka Shibasaki's novel of the same name. It follows a young woman, Asako, who falls in love with a drifter named Baku in Osaka; after he vanishes without warning, she meets in Tokyo a man named Ryohei who looks exactly like Baku but has a different personality, and must work out whether she loves the man in front of her or the memory of the man he resembles.[1](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=88970) • [2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / meaning | 寝ても覚めても (*Netemo Sametemo*), "whether sleeping or waking"; English title Asako I & II[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) |
| Director and source | Ryusuke Hamaguchi's commercial film debut, adapted from Tomoka Shibasaki's 2010 novel, which won the 32nd Noma Literary Newcomer Prize[3](https://www.bitters.co.jp/netemosametemo/) • [4](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0022223) |
| Lead cast | Masahiro Higashide in a dual role as Baku and Ryohei; Erika Karata as Asako, her first major film role[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) • [4](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0022223) |
| Festival premiere | In competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, 2018[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) |
| Release | Japan, September 1, 2018, distributed by Bitters End and Elephant House; 119 minutes[1](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=88970) |
| Key crew | Screenplay by Hamaguchi and Sachiko Tanaka; music by tofubeats; cinematography by Yasuyuki Sasaki[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) • [5](https://db.nipponconnection.com/ja/film/126/n-a) |
| Reception | 77% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (48 reviews); Metascore 69 on Metacritic[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/asako_i_and_ii) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/asako-i-ii/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film is set in two halves. In Osaka, the student Asako meets Baku at a photography exhibition and falls into a sudden, intense romance; one day he steps out to buy shoes and never returns.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt) Years later, working at a Tokyo coffee shop, she meets Ryohei, a junior executive at a sake company who is Baku's doppelgänger, and the two begin building a life together.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt) The resemblance is never explained in the film.[9](https://mubi.com/en/films/asako-i-ii/critics-reviews)
The drama turns on Asako's divided feelings. She is drawn to Ryohei but cannot tell whether her feeling is for him or for the image of Baku he carries, and when Baku reappears her carefully balanced life is upset.[10](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36880&page=20&pyear=2018) Hamaguchi described the story's pull in blunt terms: as the film approaches its essence, he said, the fact that "love = horror" comes to the surface, and he noted that readers' reactions to the novel ranged widely, which he saw as part of the story's appeal.[11](https://getnews.jp/archives/2077717)
A distinctive element is the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which Hamaguchi added to Shibasaki's novel as a turning point in the characters' relationships; the earthquake also matters to Ryohei and Asako's relationship in the screenplay, and Hamaguchi asked his co-writer Sachiko Tanaka to incorporate social events from the period.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt) • [12](https://cineana.net/archives/5277)
## Production and adaptation
**From novel to screenplay.** Hamaguchi read Shibasaki's novel around 2013, two or three years after its 2010 publication, and found its combination of everyday, visually precise description with the fantastic premise of two men who share one face close to what he wanted to do in film.[13](https://lifetoronto.jp/2018/09/people/34720.html) He has said he wanted to reproduce the author's style of letting meticulous daily description coexist with sudden, absurd developments.[14](https://www.webdice.jp/dice/detail/5676/index.html) The screenplay took roughly two years: the first draft was completed around autumn 2015, followed by repeated revisions through about the fourth or fifth draft; late changes compressed the Osaka section and added the journey to the Tohoku region.[15](https://ecrito.fever.jp/20180903221536)
In adapting the first-person novel, Hamaguchi avoided interior monologue and built the film from an accumulation of events, letting the camera show what happens and giving the audience time to react between episodes.[16](https://cinemore.jp/jp/news-feature/408/article_p1.html)
**Casting.** Hamaguchi said the project began in earnest when [Masahiro Higashide](https://www.edgepedia.org/masahiro-higashide) accepted; he reasoned that Higashide's experience as a Paris Collection model would make the unpredictable Baku convincing, while the "good big brother" impression from his television variety appearances suited the steady Ryohei.[11](https://getnews.jp/archives/2077717) Erika Karata was chosen through an audition for her first major film role.[11](https://getnews.jp/archives/2077717) The supporting cast includes Koji Seto, Rio Yamashita, Sairi Ito, Daichi Watanabe, Koji Nakamoto, and Misako Tanaka.[1](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=88970)
**Music.** The score is by tofubeats, a Japanese electronic musician making his first film music; the BFI's Michael Leader describes his recurring theme for Baku as a delicate arpeggiated melody over synthesized dissonance, an uneasy motif for the character's idealized memory.[3](https://www.bitters.co.jp/netemosametemo/) • [8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt)
## Release and reception
The film premiered in the [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) section of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, where it was officially screened on May 14, 2018.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) • [17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odmQqvVod7I) It was Hamaguchi's first commercial feature and a Japan-France co-production, produced by Nagoya Broadcasting Network, Bitters End, and Comme des Cinémas.[18](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/asako-i-ii) • [2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/) It later screened at festivals including Toronto, New York, Busan, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[19](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/45752/asako-i-ii) • [10](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36880&page=20&pyear=2018) • [20](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2019/films/asako-i-ii)
Critical response was broadly favorable. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 77% Tomatometer from 48 reviews and a 72% audience score; Metacritic reports a Metascore of 69, categorized as generally favorable.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/asako_i_and_ii) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/asako-i-ii/critic-reviews/) Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times called it "a peculiarly potent story about life's unexpected little ruptures," and the site's critics consensus credits the high-concept premise to thought-provoking themes and confident direction.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/asako_i_and_ii) Reviews were not uniform: Jonathan Romney's Screen Daily review from Cannes found the premise intriguing but under-delivered, while the mk2 Films press page collects praise describing the film as one of the strongest entries in the 2018 Cannes competition.[21](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/asako-i-and-ii-cannes-review/5129364.article) • [22](https://mk2films.com/en/film/asako-i-ii/)
## Place in Hamaguchi's career
Asako I & II was the film that carried Hamaguchi, already noted for the five-hour-plus *[Happy Hour](https://www.edgepedia.org/happy-hour-2015-film)* (2015), which won a shared Best Actress prize at Locarno, into mainstream commercial cinema and onto the Cannes stage.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt) • [23](https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/about/press/2021/dl/2021-010.pdf) It established several traits that recur in his later work, including doppelgänger doubling, sudden narrative ruptures within naturalistic scenes, and extensive rehearsal of dialogue with actors; [Le Monde](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-monde) later listed it alongside *Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy* (2021), *[Drive My Car](https://www.edgepedia.org/drive-my-car-film)* (2021), and *Evil Does Not Exist* (2023) as the run of films that made him one of the most prominent filmmakers of his generation.[24](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2024/04/18/evil-does-not-exist-a-sublime-western-in-the-japanese-wilderness_6668848_30.html) • [25](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2026/08/14/ryusuke-hamaguchi-director-of-all-of-a-sudden-i-tend-to-create-my-works-from-dialogue_6756488_30.html) In the United States the film was released theatrically and on home video by Grasshopper Film.[26](https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/asako/)
## References
1. [寝ても覚めても - 作品情報, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=88970)
2. [NETEMO SAMETEMO (ASAKO I & II), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/netemo-sametemo/)
3. [映画『寝ても覚めても』公式サイト, Bitters End](https://www.bitters.co.jp/netemosametemo/)
4. [寝ても覚めても (2018)：キャスト・あらすじ・作品情報, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0022223)
5. [寝ても覚めても, Nippon Connection film database](https://db.nipponconnection.com/ja/film/126/n-a)
6. [Asako I & II, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/asako_i_and_ii)
7. [Asako I & II critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/asako-i-ii/critic-reviews/)
8. [Asako I & II first look, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/asako-i-ii-first-look-mournful-drama-out-quarter-life-crisis-doubt)
9. [Asako I & II (2018) critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/asako-i-ii/critics-reviews)
10. [Asako I&II, Busan International Film Festival archive](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36880&page=20&pyear=2018)
11. [衝撃展開が話題沸騰『寝ても覚めても』濱口監督に聞いた, GetNews](https://getnews.jp/archives/2077717)
12. [東出昌大さんが1人2役！映画『寝ても覚めても』インタビュー, シネアナゴヤ](https://cineana.net/archives/5277)
13. [『寝ても覚めても』濱口竜介監督に単独インタビュー, LifeToronto](https://lifetoronto.jp/2018/09/people/34720.html)
14. [カンヌコンペ出品、濱口竜介監督が『寝ても覚めても』を語る, webDICE](https://www.webdice.jp/dice/detail/5676/index.html)
15. [濱口竜介インタビュー：連載「新時代の映像作家たち」, ecrit-o](https://ecrito.fever.jp/20180903221536)
16. [濱口竜介監督の映画術とは『寝ても覚めても』, CINEMORE](https://cinemore.jp/jp/news-feature/408/article_p1.html)
17. [カンヌ国際映画祭レッドカーペット, The Asahi Shimbun (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odmQqvVod7I)
18. [ASAKO I & II, FCCJ committee blog](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/asako-i-ii)
19. [Asako I & II de Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (2018), Unifrance](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/45752/asako-i-ii)
20. [Asako I & II, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2019/films/asako-i-ii)
21. ['Asako I & II': Cannes Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/asako-i-and-ii-cannes-review/5129364.article)
22. [ASAKO I & II, mk2 Films](https://mk2films.com/en/film/asako-i-ii/)
23. [PRESS RELEASE, Japan Foundation (2021)](https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/about/press/2021/dl/2021-010.pdf)
24. ['Evil Does Not Exist': A sublime western in the Japanese wilderness, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2024/04/18/evil-does-not-exist-a-sublime-western-in-the-japanese-wilderness_6668848_30.html)
25. [Ryusuke Hamaguchi interview, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2026/08/14/ryusuke-hamaguchi-director-of-all-of-a-sudden-i-tend-to-create-my-works-from-dialogue_6756488_30.html)
26. [Asako I & II, Grasshopper Film](https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/asako/)
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*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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